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one of the oddest peecees

That is indeed a clone Apple II in a custom PC-style enclosure. That's a custom tooled case. That's amazing and someone got a damn good deal on it.
 
That is very cool, I have never seen one of these. Hopefully a forum member bought it and
posts more pictures/info. :)
 
That is indeed a clone Apple II in a custom PC-style enclosure. That's a custom tooled case.

It might not be "custom" in the home-built sense, which may make it more interesting. It's labeled as coming from Taiwan, and although it may be a coincidence (although it'd be a big one) a Taiwanese apple clone called the "Fugu Elite 5" appears in lists of Apple II clones. There were *many* no-name grey-market Apple II Plus clones being churned out in Taiwan in the early 80's by the same companies that were also involved in the explosion of no-name PC knockoffs that appeared around 1983/84, and this loony mashup of those two things may well have been slapped together by whatever outfit was stamping those cases out. (Or right down the street from them, anyway.)

It's really kind of hard to tell. The fact that the badge name matches the labeling on the boards and *kind* of fits the indented space on the front of the case is an argument for it to be a factory abomination, but it's also possible the sticker was swiped off the case the transplanted the guts came from and trimmed to fit, badly. If it's a factory job it is very amateurish, but... why would the end user bother transplanting that serial number sticker that says don't open the system unit? Whatever it is, yeah, I would have paid $36 for that, no question.
 
I found one reference online to this computer.... mentions the "Fugu Elite 5" Apple II clone.

Fugu Lasar Elite-5 (rare Apple II Plus clone)
==================================
- Comes in plastic streamline PC-like case
- Detachable PC-type keyboard
- No-slot #4 (has 7 slots in total)
- Built-in Z80 co-processor on motherboard
- Plug-in ROM firmware (on an slot card)
- Case has removable port covers to mount x2 floppy drives
- Clone of Disk ][ ("Solo Vista")
- Original Fugu manuals/books
- 9" ElectroHome monitor (looks like kind used on first Apple II)
 
Fugu Lasar Elite-5 (rare Apple II Plus clone)
==================================
- Comes in plastic streamline PC-like case
- Detachable PC-type keyboard
- No-slot #4 (has 7 slots in total)
- Built-in Z80 co-processor on motherboard

The case for this is stamped metal but everything else matches up. If you look at the photo of the motherboard it has *two* 40 pin DIPs in the area where an Apple II Plus motherboard would have one (which could well be the dual 6502/Z80 CPUs), and also doesn't have ROM chips in the same area as you'd expect to find them on a typical clone board. (Most of these boards were *very* close ripoffs of the original. One of the pictures also shows a card with a couple EPROMs and nothing else on it.) Maybe the company making them ran out of the "right" cases and churned out a few abominations like this.
 
It might not be "custom" in the home-built sense, which may make it more interesting. It's labeled as coming from Taiwan, and although it may be a coincidence (although it'd be a big one) a Taiwanese apple clone called the "Fugu Elite 5" appears in lists of Apple II clones. There were *many* no-name grey-market Apple II Plus clones being churned out in Taiwan in the early 80's by the same companies that were also involved in the explosion of no-name PC knockoffs that appeared around 1983/84, and this loony mashup of those two things may well have been slapped together by whatever outfit was stamping those cases out. (Or right down the street from them, anyway.)

It's really kind of hard to tell. The fact that the badge name matches the labeling on the boards and *kind* of fits the indented space on the front of the case is an argument for it to be a factory abomination, but it's also possible the sticker was swiped off the case the transplanted the guts came from and trimmed to fit, badly. If it's a factory job it is very amateurish, but... why would the end user bother transplanting that serial number sticker that says don't open the system unit? Whatever it is, yeah, I would have paid $36 for that, no question.

I meant custom as in yes it's still a clone that was mass produced, but by no means is it a generic XT clone or cheap plastic Apple II enclosure. Perhaps "unique" was a better word. :p
 
Recently there was also a single-board Z80 CP/M computer in an IBM XT clone case:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/273915316030

z80pc.jpg
 
There were other clone type cases. I have a photo of the MC 68000 (or MCC 68000), a hobby built 68k based system from Radio Electronics magazine. I love the look of the bezel. And this case does not have the 8 IBM ISA style cutouts, but rather 8 smaller sausage style cutouts. They had planned to run a series on that iirc European based set of plans, but opted for a different domestic (US) build. Both are equally cool I'm sure, but I was so impressed with the look of the case I cut it out of the magazine and taped it to the inside of a notebook cover.
 
I meant custom as in yes it's still a clone that was mass produced, but by no means is it a generic XT clone or cheap plastic Apple II enclosure. Perhaps "unique" was a better word. :p

It would be really nice if one of the references to that Fugu machine actually had a picture of it. My guess, though, is if it was ever sold in anything approaching a mainstream publication is was in the form of one of those classified ad-type things they stuck near that back, maybe with a crude drawing of it. Would also be nice to know when it was on sale; Franklin sold a PC-looking Apple II clone in the form of the ACE 2200 around... 1985? The slimline drives imply that sort of vintage for this, perhaps it was specifically knocking off the Franklin machine.
 
CvgM6sJl.jpg


something like this, I've seen a few of these cheapo Taiwanese Apple II clones in IBM XT style case.

I own an XT turbo that came from one of these manufactures in 1985, nearly identical case.
 
Looks like we have a winner there. (Although there's also a good chance that's just a "clip art" photo.)

I'm still kind of surprised how crude the workmanship seems to be but, hey, I'm sure it was cheap.
 
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